Overall, Nevada County Broadband Strategy is on track and moving forward. The most exciting update regarding promoting of the county’s objective on Broadband is the county’s project to develop a municipal broadband network in Nevada County. On July 20, 2021, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 156 into law, creating the Federal Funding Account (FFA). SB 156 revises and recasts the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) program (Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 281), among other things, to establish as the goal of the Broadband Infrastructure Grant Account, rather than the CASF fund to approve funding for infrastructure projects that will provide broadband access to no less than 98% of California households and establishes the Federal Funding Account in the CASF program. As a part of the Last-Mile Federal Funding Account program, Nevada County ISPs and public entities were allocated $74,866,198 for competitive grants that advance last-mile broadband.

Subsequently, Nevada County submitted a project for the development of a municipal broadband network through the Golden State Connect Authority on September 28, 2023 for funding through the Federal Funding Account first round. The project leverages the the design and engineering work that was funded through Local Agency Technical Assistance Grants (LATA), at no cost to each county. The design work progressed from high-level design to low-level design, with associated build costs. If approved, the project would advance a broadband network in western Nevada County that could impact 4,694 homes with last-mile broadband access. The areas selected for the grant application were based on eligible priority areas, per connection costs, proximity to existing middle mile, network sustainability, and network expansion, among other scoring criteria. The project as proposed will be built, owned, and operated by GSCA.